Breathed Through Silver
by Peradan
Summary: Fragments of the lives of the Skywalker family. Mostly OT, mostly ignores the EU, otherwise canon compliant.
1. Kinship

When Anakin gets himself blown up - or whatever really did happen to him - it doesn't matter that there hadn't been drop of Lars blood in his veins. Owen would sooner chop off his right arm than abandon his brother's son to those damned wizards.

Maybe Luke is always his _brother's_ son. Anakin casts a long shadow, even from the grave. Besides, Beru and Owen never wanted children. They didn't want _Luke_, and they never thought of adopting him. But they've risked their lives and given up their youth to do their duty by him, as his aunt and uncle, and they've done their best. They brought him into their home. They've kept him safe for over fifteen years. Nobody, least of all Luke, doubts that they love him.

He's not their son: not by blood, not by adoption. But people love their nephews, too.


	2. Real Mothers

Leia understands what Luke meant by the phrase, and responded appropriately, but she never speaks of real mothers herself.

Her mother was Jaina Organa, Queen Breha of Alderaan – and before her, Padmé Naberrie, Senator Amidala of Naboo. Neither was her real mother.

They were her mothers. Full stop.


	3. Saviour

_Leia._

She started.

Lando, busy at the controls, only gave her one odd look. Neither he nor Chewie seemed to notice anything.

Of course they didn't. Luke wasn't _here_, he was back at Bespin: already dead at Vader's hands, perhaps, or more probably, frozen like Han. She couldn't possibly have heard him. It was just – her imagination, tormenting her for leaving him behind.

_Leia!_

She hesitated. Even Han had privately admitted that Luke's abilities went well beyond the natural. Was it possible – ?

_Leia, hear me._

His tired, desperate voice cut through the shouts and straining machinery. Leia set her jaw.

"We've got to go back," she said.


	4. Always Known

Leia was drawn to Luke from the first, in a quiet, persistent way entirely unlike her attraction to Han.

She never _fancied_ him (much), but she still wished they could always - almost always - be together, hated when the war separated them, and felt almost mad with terror when he was in danger and she couldn't look out for him.

She didn't suspect the truth, as such, but when Luke said "my sister," she only felt surprise that she hadn't guessed it before. Really, how could he be anything but her little brother?


	5. Affinity

Leia always hated the imperial court: the duplicity and infighting and general treachery. Tarkin was little different from the others - simply the worst of an already despicable crowd.

The only one she felt even a grudging respect for was Darth Vader, of all people. As a child, she'd rather admired him: he was bold, fearless, uncompromising, and he could stop blaster bolts with his mind. Later, of course, she realised that he was also evil and chillingly deranged. She could never admire him again - but an odd, reluctant respect continued to twist its way through her revulsion.

He had real strength, real power, and Leia liked to imagine that someday, she would have as much. _More._

Luke has only to hint around the subject once or twice before Leia asks him to teach her the ways of the Force.


	6. Flashback

"But you _said_ - "

Owen draws a swift breath. Luke's resemblance to his father is always startling, but never more so than in these flashes of temper. The set of his mouth, the blazing blue eyes, even the restless movements of his hands are pure Anakin.

Luke finally locks them behind his back, every line of his body stiff with fury. Owen feels twenty-three all over again: grief-stricken, helpless, and half-cringing away from a teenage boy.

This is Luke, he tells himself. Not Anakin. _Luke._

And Luke can't go to the Academy. Owen's seen him shooting down rodents with careless precision, catching his tools a moment too fast. Oh, one boy might fly under the radar for awhile, but how long before someone notices that he's too quick, too good for a raw recruit? For a _human?_ The Empire, whatever else one might say about it, rewards talent – and once Vader heards the name _Skywalker . . ._

Inexplicably, he thinks of Cliegg Lars, his own father, sitting at this table – and saying, _if you don't like the deal, change it._

"I need you on the farm," he says, his voice steady. "You can apply to the Imperial Academy next year."

He'll come up with a better excuse then.


	7. Almost Human

He was a cyborg.

It was on all his records, now. It'd always been _human_ before. Not that they'd checked, or anything. With the Rebellion, it was enough to say so. Except now, because everyone knew about the hand.

Oh, it was better than the stump, but it didn't itch, it fumbled, it was too strong, it wasn't the same. _He_ wasn't the same. He was part machine now, just like—just like—just like he'd been in his vision. How much longer before—

No. _No._ It wouldn't happen, he'd stop it, _always in motion_, do something, not do something. He wasn't going to turn, wasn't going to turn into that, would never threaten his own child's life.

Though Vader _hadn't_ killed him, in the end. Distantly, Luke wondered why.


End file.
